Top 10 of 2013

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*Click on the ‘Lists & Logs’ tab to see lists from previous years.

This is a dynamic list, so it’ll be updated each time I see a film which had its world premiere in 2013 that is better than at least one of the films already on the list.

  1. The Strange Little Cat (Ramon Zürcher)
  2. Dusty Stacks of Mom: The Poster Project (Jodie Mack)
  3. Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski)
  4. MANAKAMANA (Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez)
  5. Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz)
  6. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)
  7. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)
  8. Bastards (Claire Denis)
  9. Nymphomaniac: Volume II (Lars von Trier)
  10. Sheep (Gilles Deroo & Marianne Pistone)

 

Polls Top 10 (eligible titles appear here)

  1. Leviathan (2012, Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel)
  2. Computer Chess (2013, Andrew Bujalski)
  3. Like Someone In Love (2012, Abbas Kiarostami)
  4. Bastards (2013, Claire Denis)
  5. Frances Ha (2012, Noah Baumbach)
  6. Beyond the Hills (2012, Cristian Mungiu)
  7. Viola (2012, Matías Piñeiro)
  8. You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet! (2012, Alain Resnais)
  9. To the Wonder (2012, Terrence Malick)
  10. Nebraska (2013, Alexander Payne)

 

My Top 10 Discoveries During 2013 (only first-time viewings of films made before 2000 are eligible)

  1. Boy Meets Girl (1984, Leos Carax)
  2. High and Low (1963, Akira Kurosawa)
  3. Brief Encounter (1945, David Lean)
  4. Zorns Lemma (1970, Hollis Frampton)
  5. U.S. Go Home (1994, Claire Denis)
  6. Yoyo (1965, Pierre Étaix)
  7. Léon Morin, Priest (1961, Jean-Pierre Melville)
  8. Slacker (1991, Richard Linklater)
  9. Un Coeur en Hiver (1992, Claude Sautet)
  10. Z (1969, Costa-Gavras)

 

Other 2013 films I’ve seen

  • Nebraska (Alexander Payne) – 7.0
  • Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch) – 7.0
  • The Counselor [Unrated Extended Cut] (Ridley Scott) – 6.9
  • Upstream Color (Shane Carruth) – 6.9
  • Stop the Pounding Heart (Roberto Minervini) – 6.8
  • Charlie Victor Romeo (Robert Berger, Patrick Daniels, & Karlyn Michelson) – 6.8
  • A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhang-ke) – 6.8
  • The Manor (Shawney Cohen) – 6.8
  • Sentimental Education (Júlio Bressane) – 6.7
  • River (Bill Ross IV) – 6.7
  • A Thousand Suns (Mati Diop) – 6.6
  • Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón) – 6.6
  • The Dirties (Matt Johnson) – 6.6
  • Love is the Perfect Crime (Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu) – 6.6
  • Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho) – 6.6
  • Jealousy (Philippe Garrel) – 6.6
  • Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen) – 6.5
  • When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism (Corneliu Porumboiu) – 6.5
  • La última película (Raya Martin & Mark Peranson) – 6.5
  • Coherence (James Ward Byrkit) – 6.4
  • Moebius (Kim Ki-duk) – 6.4
  • Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt) – 6.3
  • Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater (Gabe Klinger) – 6.3
  • Enough Said (Nicole Holofcener) – 6.3
  • Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh) – 6.3
  • Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen) – 6.3
  • Let the Fire Burn (Jason Osder) – 6.3
  • Hard to Be a God (Alexei German) – 6.2
  • Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer) – 6.2
  • These Birds Walk (Omar Mullick & Bassam Tariq) – 6.2
  • Blood (Alina Rudnitskaya) – 6.2
  • Club Sandwich (Fernando Eimbcke) – 6.2
  • Before Midnight (Richard Linklater) – 6.1
  • Three Interpretation Exercises (Cristi Puiu) – 6.1
  • 3x3D (Peter Greenaway, Jean-Luc Godard, & Edgar Pêra) – 6.1
  • Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass) – 6.1
  • William and the Windmill (Ben Nabors) – 6.1
  • Tip Top (Serge Bozon) – 6.0
  • i hate myself :) (Joanna Arnow) – 6.0
  • Camille Claudel 1915 (Bruno Dumont) – 6.0
  • I Used to Be Darker (Matt Porterfield) – 6.0
  • All is Lost (J.C. Chandor) – 6.0
  • Northern Light (Nick Bentgen) – 5.9
  • Closed Curtain (Jafar Panahi & Kambuzia Partovi) – 5.9
  • Our Sunhi (Hong Sang-soo) – 5.9
  • Blue is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche) – 5.9
  • Caucus (AJ Schnack) – 5.9
  • The World’s End (Edgar Wright) – 5.9
  • What Now? Remind Me (Joaquim Pinto) – 5.9
  • Three Landscapes (Peter Hutton) – 5.9
  • Venus In Fur (Roman Polanski) – 5.9
  • We Are the Best! (Lukas Moodysson) – 5.8
  • Proxy (Zack Parker) – 5.8
  • The Naked Room (Nuria Ibáñez) – 5.8
  • Starred Up (David Mackenzie) – 5.8
  • The Great Beauty (Paolo Sorrentino) – 5.8
  • This is the End (Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogen) – 5.8
  • The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard) – 5.8
  • Her (Spike Jonze) – 5.8
  • 12 O’Clock Boys (Lotfy Nathan) – 5.8
  • TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard (Simon Klose) – 5.8
  • Abuse of Weakness (Catherine Breillat) – 5.7
  • Lucky Them (Megan Griffiths) – 5.7
  • Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (Declan Lowney) – 5.7
  • Side Effects (Steven Soderbergh) – 5.7
  • Joe (David Gordon Green) – 5.7
  • Nymphomaniac: Volume I (Lars von Trier)– 5.6
  • A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness (Ben Rivers & Ben Russell) – 5.6
  • This is Martin Bonner (Chad Hartigan) – 5.6
  • Like Father, Like Son (Hirokazu Kore-eda) – 5.6
  • American Promise (Joe Brewster & Michèle Stephenson) – 5.6
  • R100 (Hitoshi Matsumoto) – 5.6
  • Salvation Army (Abdellah Taïa) – 5.6
  • Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer (Maxim Pozdorovkin) – 5.6
  • Our Nixon (Penny Lane) – 5.6
  • Story of My Death (Albert Serra) – 5.5
  • Paradise: Hope (Ulrich Seidl) – 5.5
  • Señoritas (Lina Rodriguez) – 5.5
  • Age of Panic (Justine Triet) – 5.5
  • Love Battles (Jacques Doillon) – 5.5
  • Eastern Boys (Robin Campillo) – 5.5
  • Gerontophilia (Bruce LaBruce) – 5.5
  • Anita (Freida Lee Mock) – 5.5
  • After Hours (Basil Da Cunha) – 5.5
  • Monsters University (Dan Scanlon) – 5.5
  • The Immigrant (James Gray) – 5.4
  • October November (Götz Spielmann) – 5.4
  • The Spectacular Now (James Ponsoldt) – 5.4
  • Blind Detective (Johnnie To) – 5.3
  • Exhibition (Joanna Hogg) – 5.3
  • The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese) – 5.3
  • The Amazing Catfish (Claudia Sainte-Luce) – 5.3
  • Bright Days Ahead (Marion Vernoux) – 5.3
  • Lacrau (João Vladimiro) – 5.3
  • The Congress (Ari Folman) – 5.2
  • How to Disappear Completely (Raya Martin) – 5.2
  • Doomsdays (Eddie Mullins) – 5.2
  • Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski) – 5.2
  • Liahona (Talena Sanders) – 5.2
  • The Lunchbox (Ritesh Batr) – 5.2
  • Stoker (Park Chan-wook) – 5.2
  • Vic + Flo Saw a Bear (Denis Côté) – 5.2
  • The Summer of Flying Fish (Marcela Said) – 5.2
  • Lukas the Strange (John Torres) – 5.2
  • Downloaded (Alex Winter) – 5.2
  • The Dallas Buyers Club (Jean-Marc Vallée) – 5.2
  • Blood Ties (Guillaume Canet) – 5.1
  • Valentine Road (Marta Cunningham) – 5.1
  • We Always Lie To Strangers (AJ Schnack & David Boone Wilson) – 5.1
  • The Kill Team (Dan Krauss) – 5.1
  • Shield of Straw (Takashi Miike) – 5.1
  • Salvo (Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza) – 5.1
  • Bends (Flora Lau) – 5.1
  • Young & Beautiful (François Ozon) – 5.0
  • Oldboy (Spike Lee) – 5.0
  • Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier) – 5.0
  • Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich) – 5.0
  • Tom at the Farm (Xavier Dolan) – 5.0
  • The Oxbow Cure (Yonah Lewis & Calvin Thomas) – 5.0
  • Black Box (Stephen Cone) – 5.0
  • At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman) – 4.9
  • The Great Gatsby (Baz Luhrmann) – 4.9
  • Miraculous Tales (Daniel Vernon) – 4.9
  • The Rendez-Vous of Déjà-Vu (Antonin Peretjatko) – 4.9
  • A Field in England (Ben Wheatley) – 4.9
  • Nobody’s Daughter Haewon (Hong Sang-soo) – 4.9
  • Chimeras (Mika Mattila) – 4.9
  • Borgman (Alex Van Warmerdam) – 4.9
  • About Time (Richard Curtis) – 4.9
  • Sacro GRA (Gianfranco Rosi) – 4.9
  • Michael Kohlhaas (Arnaud des Pallieres) – 4.9
  • The Canyons (Paul Schrader) – 4.8
  • American Hustle (David O. Russell) – 4.8
  • Crystal Fairy (Sebastián Silva) – 4.8
  • White Reindeer (Zach Clark) – 4.8
  • It Felt Like Love (Eliza Hittman) – 4.8
  • On My Way (Emmanuelle Bercot) – 4.8
  • Ilo Ilo (Anthony Chen) – 4.8
  • The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears (Helene Cattet & Bruno Forzani) – 4.8
  • Gabrielle (Louise Archambault) – 4.8
  • Which Way is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington (Sebastian Junger) – 4.8
  • Gold (Thomas Arslan) – 4.7
  • Enemy (Denis Villeneuve) – 4.7
  • A Master Builder (Jonathan Demme) – 4.7
  • The Square (Jehane Noujaim) – 4.7
  • White House Down (Roland Emmerich) – 4.7
  • Heli (Amat Escalante) – 4.7
  • Killing Strangers (Nicolás Pereda & Jacob Secher Schulsinger) – 4.7
  • The Invisible Woman (Ralph Fiennes) – 4.7
  • Blackfish (Gabriela Cowperthwaite) – 4.7
  • I’m So Excited (Pedro Almodóvar) – 4.6
  • Gradual Speed (Els Van Riel) – 4.6
  • We Cause Scenes (Matt Adams) – 4.6
  • The Last Black Sea Pirates (Svetoslav Stoyanov) – 4.6
  • Me Myself and Mum (Guillaume Gallienne) – 4.6
  • A Castle in Italy (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) – 4.6
  • The Island of St. Matthews (Kevin Jerome Everson) – 4.6
  • Sarah Prefers to Run (Chloé Robichaud) – 4.6
  • Pacific Rim (Guillermo del Toro) – 4.6
  • Bà Nội (Khoa Lê) – 4.6
  • You and the Night (Yann Gonzalez) – 4.5
  • Coast of Death (Lois Patiño) – 4.5
  • Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (David Lowery) – 4.5
  • 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen) – 4.5
  • Locke (Steven Knight) – 4.5
  • Short Term 12 (Destin Cretton) – 4.5
  • Siddharth (Richie Mehta) – 4.5
  • Bambi (Sébastien Lifshitz) – 4.5
  • The Bling Ring (Sofia Coppola) – 4.4
  • Gloria (Sebastián Lelio) – 4.4
  • The Unknown Known (Errol Morris) – 4.4
  • Mary Queen of Scots (Thomas Imbach) – 4.4
  • Le Week-End (Roger Mitchell) – 4.4
  • Grand Central (Rebecca Zlotowski) – 4.4
  • Teenage (Matt Wolf) – 4.4
  • The Missing Picture (Rithy Panh) – 4.3
  • Apaches (Thierry de Peretti) – 4.3
  • Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn) – 4.3
  • The Grandmaster (Wong Kar-wai) – 4.3
  • The Last Days on Mars (Ruairi Robinson) – 4.3
  • Furious 6 (Justin Lin) – 4.2
  • Pain & Gain (Michael Bay) – 4.2
  • Pays Barbare (Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi) – 4.2
  • Touchy Feely (Lynn Shelton) – 4.2
  • Burt’s Buzz (Jody Shapiro) – 4.2
  • The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki) – 4.1
  • Leaf in the Wind (Jean-Marie Teno) – 4.1
  • Cold Eyes (Cho Ui-seok and Kim Byung-seo) – 4.1
  • Manuscripts Don’t Burn (Mohammad Rasoulof) – 4.0
  • Burning Bush (Agnieszka Holland) – 4.0
  • The Conjuring (James Wan) – 4.0
  • Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler) – 4.0
  • Child’s Pose (Calin Peter Netzer) – 3.9
  • Omar (Hany Abu-Assad) – 3.9
  • Stop-Over (Kaveh Bakhtiari) – 3.9
  • My Sweet Pepper Land (Hiner Saleem) – 3.9
  • Muscle Shoals (Greg ‘Freddy’ Camalier) – 3.9
  • The Past (Asghar Farhadi) – 3.8
  • Grisgris (Mahamat Saleh Haroun) – 3.8
  • The Rocket (Kim Mordaunt) – 3.8
  • Star Trek Into Darkness (J.J. Abrams) – 3.8
  • Expedition to the End of the World (Daniel Dencik) – 3.8
  • The German Doctor (Lucía Puenzo) – 3.7
  • World War Z (Marc Forster) – 3.6
  • Thou Gild’st the Even (Onur Ünlü) – 3.6
  • The Last of the Unjust (Claude Lanzmann) – 3.5
  • Daredevils (Stephanie Barber) – 3.5
  • Felix Austria! (Christine Beebe) – 3.5
  • 15 Reasons to Live (Alan Zweig) – 3.4
  • The Dance of Reality (Alejandro Jodorowsky) – 3.4
  • Suzanne (Katell Quillévéré) – 3.3
  • My Name Is Hmmm… (Agnès Troublé) – 3.3
  • The Auction (Sébastien Pilote) – 3.2
  • The Lone Ranger (Gore Verbinski) – 3.2
  • Oblivion (Joseph Kosinski) – 3.1
  • Interior. Leather Bar. (James Franco & Travis Mathews) – 3.1
  • Blood Brother (Steve Hoover) – 3.0
  • Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (Arnaud Desplechin) – 3.0
  • The Art of the Steal (Jonathan Sobol) – 3.0
  • Real (Kiyoshi Kurosawa) – 2.8
  • Jellyfish Eyes (Takashi Murakami) – 2.7
  • The Battle of Tabatô (Joao Viana) – 2.2
  • Child of God (James Franco) – 1.8
  • Nothing Bad Can Happen (Katrin Gebbe) – 0.6